Our Photo Expedition Week 1

Last week I received an e-mail from Kodak Gallery, and they mentioned a photo expedition sweepstakes they were promoting through Facebook. I clicked on the link and found that each week this summer, Kodak will pick five random objects for contestants to take pictures of and submit. Brenton and I figured we didn't stand a chance winning, but that it would be a fun thing for us to do to record the summer we had Ryan. So, we spent the day on Saturday taking pictures of the five things for last week. They were an umbrella, a cupcake, a sunset, a U.S. flag, and something with polka dots. Although it's not a requirement, we decided that both of us should be in each picture, something definitely doable when you have a tripod and a timer on the camera. It was a blast. Here are the pictures taken in color. To see the pictures in black and white, with the certain object highlighted, see my Facebook profile.

The first picture we took was the cupcake. We went to "The Sweet-Tooth Fairy's Bakery" in Provo, and picked out the prettiest cupcake we could find. A kind lady at the bakery took this picture for us. The cupcake was incredible. Very, very tasty.

Next, we took a picture of the umbrella. We came up with the idea because we recently bought a hose attachment for our garden called a "rain-maker." So we watered the garden with me under the umbrella. Also note, those are my new gardening/rain boots, and I LOVE them!.

After the garden, we took a picture of something with polka-dots. Really, it just ended up as an excuse to eat a root beer float. We filled up my big frosty mug, put in two straws, and oh yeah, I put a polka-dot ribbon in my hair from an Easter gift basket my mom gave me back in college. It actually ended up being my favorite photo of the whole set.

Our last two photos proved more difficult. We looked up online to see when the sun was setting, and thought we'd try and take the pictures down by Utah Lake. However, we went the wrong way and by the time we realized it, we would miss the sunset if we turned back. So we found a pretty field, set up the tripod, and took a quick picture.

Our last picture proved to be the hardest. We just couldn't seem to come up with a nice way to take a picture with an American flag. It has so much symbolism in it, and so we didn't want it to look cheesy or disrespectful. As we were driving back from the sunset field, we saw an elementary school with a flag. Brenton pulled up, and said, "This is the flag we're using. We'll make it work." With minutes of daylight left, we set up the tripod and just, stood there. It took a few tries to get one with the wind blowing, but it turned out ok.

It was a really fun day. We're excited to see what this week's five objects are, and create more memories for our first summer in Utah. On the off chance that we win, I'll be sure to let y'all know.